《奥斯卡与露辛达》

    intriguing 引人入胜的

    fate 命运

    obsessive 着迷的

    unpredictable 不可预知的

    twist 转折

    fallout 后果

    aboriginal 土著

    emissary 使者

    prejudice 偏见

    heiress 女继承人

    authority 权威

    This is an intriguing* story of how a certain church was built in rural Australia as a result of the curious arrangement of fate* in the lives of Oscar Hopkins and Lucinda Leplastrier.

    Oscar is a church man. Lucinda is a rich young woman in the glass factory business. The two meet because of their obsessive* love for gambling. Gambling makes them fall in love. Gambling leads to the end of the plot in the creation and transport of the church of glass.

    The story is full of incidents with unpredictable* ends. The biggest such twist* comes at the end of the novel when Oscar and Lucinda both experience their tragic fallout*.

    The book is set in Australia in the 1800s. Much of Australia was inhabited by aboriginals* and was underdeveloped at that time. The Christian Church was sending its emissaries* to the rural parts of Australia while trying to civilize it.

    We get glimpses of social customs and prejudices* of the time. We see how Lucinda, a single young heiress* tries to hold her ground in a society unused to authority* from women.